Toefl iBT® Free Practice Test Transcript

Rationale: 
This response is in the high writing proficiency range. It would probably earn the score of 5 based on the 
Integrated Writing Scoring Rubric. The response is well organized, conveys the important information 
from all three lecture points, and connects it well with information that was presented in the reading 
passage. In response to the reading argument that the Chevalier de Seingalt exaggerated his wealth 
because we know he was forced to borrow money; the writer correctly conveys the lecturer’s argument 
that the Chevalier needed the loans only because his considerable assets could not always be quickly 
converted into cash. In response to the argument that the Chevalier could not possibly remember his 

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conversations with Voltaire so many years later, the writer conveys that the Chevalier based his memoirs 
on extensive notes he took at the time of his conversations with the famous author. Finally, in response 
to the argument that the Chevalier’s description of his escape from prison through a hole in a ceiling is 
hard to believe, the writer conveys the argument that Chevalier’s account is supported by the historical 
records describing ceiling repairs in the prison where he was held. There are a few minor language 
errors (“it's details”, “count of all conversations”, “records… which shows repairs being carried out”, 
“on the outset”) but they do not interfere with meaning in any way. In fact, the writer is very skilled in 
using sophisticated and accurate paraphrasing to convey the content from the lecture and the passage. A 
few examples: “he would indulge in extravaganzas like parties and gambling”; “conversations with 
Voltaire which he recorded with accuracy in his memoir which was penned down years later”; “repairs 
being carried out to the cieling [ceiling] of the very same cell in which the Chevalier was imprisoned.”